François Jacob made several major contributions to the field of genetics through successful collaborations with other scientists at the famous Pasteur Institute in France. His most noted work involved the formulation of the Jacob-Monod operon model, which helps explain how genes are regulated. Jacob also studied messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA), which serves as an intermediary between the deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA), which carries the genetic code, and the ribosomes, where proteins are synthesized. He also demonstrated that bacteria follow the same general rules of natural selection and evolution as higher organisms. In recognition of their work in genetic control and viruses, Jacob and two other scientists at the Pasteur Institute, Jacques Lucien Monod and André Lwoff, shared the 1965 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine.

Jacob was born on June 17, 1920, in Nancy, France, to Simon Jacob, a merchant, and the former Thérèse Franck...